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Assembly Times

 Sunday

   Bible Classes (10:00 am)

   AM Worship (11:00 am)

 Wednesday

   Bible Classes (7:00 pm)

Location

180 Townwood Drive

Charlottesville, VA 22901

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Refuge for Troubled Souls
By Jim McGuiggan

“Now my soul is troubled!” he said (John 12:27). He was speaking about the cross that now inevitably lay ahead of him—the hour had finally drawn near. We’re not to think he feared loss, for he knew as sure as the world spins around that the cross was his moment of triumph (Jn. 12:31-32; Col. 2:15).

Triumph or not, Gethsemane’s mystery makes it clear that the cross for Jesus was no picnic on the Plain of Sharon. So troubled, a cold night when people warmed themselves around fires (John 18:18) and yet Jesus is sweating so profusely that it was falling from him the way heavy drops of blood fall from a wound (Luke 22:44).

“Now my soul is troubled!” And where do his thoughts go immediately?

“What shall I say—‘Father, save me from this hour?’” They go to his “Father”. Not to “God,” though that would have been no crime and certainly it would have been appropriate. His thoughts went to the God he called his “Father”. Yes, I can see that the word “father” isn’t all sugar and sweetness and that there is authority there as well as affection and warmth but Jesus knew that too; he also knew the appeal of the word “father” (Luke 11:9-13; Mat 7:9-11).

“Now my soul is troubled!” Should he ask his
Father to deliver him from the agony of “this hour”? He can’t and won’t do it and it isn’t that he doubts his Father’s love for him. No! He’s convinced beyond debate that his Father loves him but he’s also convinced beyond debate that he has a destiny and a mission to fulfill for his Father (John 12:27). He doesn’t question the love of his Father even though he is sorely troubled nor do we question his love for his Father because his next words are, “Father, glorify your name” (John 12:28).

In joy (Luke 10:21) his thoughts turn to his Father and when his soul is sore troubled he finds refuge in that name “Father”. I suppose that’s the profound difference between the man Jesus and all other humans; that in his awful trouble his first thought is not rescue but the glorification of his Father. He knows full well how it feels to want to be rescued from agony and plainly says so (Matthew 26:39) but down below his awful pain and mysterious fear there's the heart that wills his Father’s will without reservation. What enabled him in that way? His own person and destiny were unique, of course (of course!) but what enabled him to confront his fears, look them right in the eye and brush on past them is what enables lovers everywhere to do a similar thing.

For love of his Father and his Father’s purpose Jesus lived in warm, unswerving and God-imitating righteousness [groan, I am so unlike him], saving a world. For love of family and friends people bear profound burdens they wish they didn’t have to bear and they carry them not only willingly but with gladness. What a mixture life is. What amazing “contradictions” we find in every life we come across. Looking at us from our common and
universal engagement with sin, “there is no difference for all have sinned.” Looking at us from the perspective of our need we need the refuge of the name “Father”; we need the forgiveness of our sins and we need a profound sense of destiny and mission that means even when life is oppressive, as “the body of Christ,” we’ll glorify that “Father” in his wondrous and generous purpose toward the human family.

"Father!" There's so much in that word and so much hope for the human family.